The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

Deandre Ayton struggled in limited, foul plagued minutes of his Phoenix Suns’ game three loss to the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2021 NBA Finals, but acknowledged the support from the Bahamian public as one of his many motivating factors in his team’s chase for the first Larry O’Brien trophy in franchise history.

“It means alot. There’s a lot of motivation behind it. I know there’s a lot of people back home watching and supporting me and I want to put on a show for them and make sure this thing happens,” Ayton said to reporters. “Every game I’m bringing the Bahamas with me so I’m locked in.”

In the Bucks’ 120-100 win, Ayton finished with 18 points and nine rebounds but played just 24 total minutes as he picked up five fouls. He got off to a quick start with 12 points in the fourth quarter but was seldom on the floor in the second half as the Bucks continued to expand on their lead.

Suns head coach Monty Williams stopped just short of criticising officials but pointed out the free throw disparity between the two teams on Sunday night.

“I’m not going to get into complaining publicly about fouls. Just not going to do that. But you can look — we had 16 free throws tonight. One person had 17. So [Ayton] is — we got to learn from that. We got to beat guys to the spot. He’ll grow from this, I promise you he will,” Williams said at the post game press conference.

Giannis Antetokounmpo had 17 of the Bucks’ 26 free throw attempts while the Suns roster attempted 16.

Williams struggled to project how the staff and Ayton will make adjustments to handle the foul trouble moving forward. Ayton exited the game after he was called for his fourth foul with 10:25 remaining in the third quarter. He picked up his fifth foul with 8:54 left in the fourth quarter.

“Yeah, that’s a tough one. I don’t even want to go there. It’s pretty self-explanatory. We got to figure out or define what is a legal guarding position because there are times where he can move his hands out of the way, but it’s hard to tell a guy what to do when somebody is running into you, you know what I mean? I don’t know what a legal guarding position is at times,” Ayton said. “But they were aggressive and we have to give them credit. I’m not going to sit here and complain about a team that is aggressive.

“But we have to understand how the refs are calling the game and then adjust to that. There’s a ton of physicality in the game, for sure, but as far as teaching him, we got to look at the film and see where he can have better body position and pick up some charges when they present themselves.”

Ayton is averaging 16.7 points and 13 rebounds per game in the series. He posted 22 points and 19 rebounds in his NBA Finals debut and followed with 10 points and 11 rebounds in game two - both wins for the Suns.

Milwaukee will host game four Wednesday, July 14 at 9pm local time while game five is back in Phoenix on July 17 at 9pm. Game six (if necessary) is in Milwaukee on July 20 at 9pm and the Suns will host game seven (if necessary), on July 22 at 9pm.

All games will be broadcast on ABC.